p A number of African countries have already started developing a national metallurgical base capable of catering for their growing demand for ferrous and non-ferrous metals which has risen owing to their large-scale construction, 182 development of national engineering and other metal- intensive industries. The Soviet Union plays a leading role in assisting African countries in building iron and steel plants. One of the continent’s biggest is the Hehvan metallurgical complex in Egypt, whose design capacity is 1.5 million tons of steel a year. This is a complex of industrial enterprises, including an agglomeration plant, a blast- furnace, an oxygen converter, cold and hot rolling mills, a coking plant, and some other units. To ensure iron-ore supplies for the complex, the Soviet Union helped to build a mine in the Bahariya oasis.

p In 1972, a steel foundry was commissioned for the El Hadjar iron and steel works, Algeria’s first. The Soviet Union also helped in its construction. The production of local steel allows the country to curtail imports and meet the demand for steel for oil- and gas-pipe production. Yet the demand is growing so rapidly that Algeria has to import nearly a million tons of steel annually. For this reason, the government decided to expand the El Hadjar iron and steel works from 410,000 to between 1,800,000 and 2,000,000 tons of steel a year. Soviet organisations are taking an active part in building a blast-furnace, an agglomeration plant, a steel foundry, a coking plant, a wire- drawing shop, and general auxiliary services and premises. The El Hadjar iron and steel works is Algeria’s biggest project which, when completed, will be one of the most modern metallurgical enterprises in Africa. When the expansion work is completed, the plant will produce almost all the country’s ferrous metals. After 1980, it will meet over 50 per cent of Algeria’s demand for such metals.

p In June 1976, the Soviet Union and Nigeria agreed to start work on an iron and steel plant. Its initial capacity was to be 1.3 million tons of steel a year. Its construction is making good progress.

p The total capacity of Soviet-assisted metallurgical enterprises in Africa will be 4.4 million tons of steel a year. This compares favourably with the 0.5 million tons of steel produced annually in Africa in the mid-1970s.

p The Soviet Union’s contribution to the development of aluminium production in Africa is also great. Until recently, there were only two aluminium plants in independent Africa—in Ghana and Cameroon. Their aggregate capacity was some 150,000 tons a year. In keeping with the Soviet- 183 Egyptian agreement signed in July 1969, the Soviet Union rendered assistance in building a 100,000-ton annual capacity aluminium plant at Nag Hammadi.

p Algeria’s first modern non-ferrous metal enterprise is the El Abadia lead and zinc factory, which can process 2,000 tons of ore daily. Another Algerian big non-ferrous metal plant—Ismail—was put into operation in 1973. It, too, was built with Soviet assistance following the discovery of a mercury deposit by Soviet geologists. An agreement was signed for building an aluminium plant producing 140,000 tons of aluminium annually.

p The development of metalworking and mechanical engineering is of paramount importance for overcoming the African countries’ technical backwardness, so cooperation in this field accounts for a sizable share of the total volume of Soviet-African business activities and involves 29 projects. They include plants manufacturing forged articles, electric welding circuits, welding electrodes, metal-cutting lathes, aluminium cables, radio and TV sets, cutting instruments, files, abrasives, and the like. Back in the 1960s, the Soviet Union contributed to the development of Africa’s emerging shipbuilding industry by helping Egypt to establish the continent’s largest shipyard in Alexandria, where various sea-going vessels are built. In Angola, the Soviet Union is assisting in the modernisation of the shipyard in Lobito and the reconstruction of the ship repair workshops in Benguela.

p The participation by Soviet experts in putting back into operation a number of Algerian enterprises that were standing idle, after their former owners and foreign engineers and technicians had fled, contributed to the consolidation of the national metal-working and engineering industries. These enterprises included plants producing metal structures, boilers, electrical equipment, and a railway car- building plant.

p The setting up of a repair base to ensure continuous maintenance of farm machines occupies a prominent place in the overall cooperation aimed at strengthening the economies of the African countries. In Guinea, for instance, the Soviet Union has helped to build a mechanical repair shop for tractors and other agricultural machinery. Ten similar shops were put up in Algeria, and one is currently under construction in Angola.

p The oil-refining, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries were not developed in Africa in the colonial period. Even oil-producing countries had to import oil products. In the early 1960s, the African countries imported a $ BOO millionworth of chemical goods annually.

p Political independence has meant that the requisites have been created for developing these vital industries. Specifically, by 1976 three refineries with a combined capacity of 2.6 million tons were built in Africa with Soviet assistance. They include the Assab oil-refinery in Ethiopia, which was commissioned in 1968 and is unique in the country. It employs 600 workers, or 25 per cent of the labour force in Ethiopia’s petrochemical industry. This efficient enterprise puts out 12 varieties of high-quality oil products, including condensed gas, petrol, kerosene, diesel and propellant fuel, fuel oil, and bitumen. Some of these products go for home consumers while some are exported. The refinery’s flow-chart drawn up by Soviet experts makes it possible to refine oil of different physico-chemical composition. For many years now, Ethiopia has been independent with respect to the choice of crude oil sources.

p Coke production is an entirely new industry for Africa. It is closely connected with the development of the iron and steel industry. Africa’s first enterprise of this kind was a coking plant built in Egypt, in cooperation with the USSR, which produces 1.2 million tons of coke annually.

Enterprises built in a number of African countries with Soviet assistance ensure the supply of building materials for civil engineering and industrial construction. In the Algerian town of Oran, for instance, a workshop producing an annual 10,000 tons of plate glass was built in 1973. Now Algeria has cut down its sheet glass imports. In Mali, the cement factory at Diamou is the biggest of its kind in the country, producing 50,000 tons of cement a year. It was built in 1969 with Soviet assistance and plans are under way to expand it.